Summary of Climate Change Impacts

Impact studies are inherently regional, which introduces large uncertainties.  It also seems to make communicating this quite difficult; there are many regions and multiple impacts per region.  Therefore, there’s isn’t a small set of nice soundbites that can be used to illustrate these impacts; you really do need to delve into them in quite some detail.

So, I thought I would try and do a bit of that here.  The table in the SPM ... is actually pretty detailed; it includes a range of impacts for each region, the confidence in each projection, the climate drivers, the risks for different time frames, and the potential for adaptation (being WGII, this report focused mainly on adaptation).  What I thought I would do below is reproduce the part of the table for each region and highlight one impact for each region for which there is high confidence.

Africa

Reduced crop productivity associated with heat and drought stress, with strong adverse effects on regional, national, and household livelihood and food security, also given increased pest and disease damage and flood impacts on food system infrastructure. Under a high-emission pathway, the long-term risk is very high with little potential for adaptation.

Europe
Increased water restrictions.  Significant reduction in water availability from river abstraction and from groundwater resources, combined with increased water demand and with reduced water drainage and runoff as a result of increased evaporative demand, particularly in southern Europe.  Risk is medium-to-high with some potential for adaptation.

Asia
Increased risk of heat-related mortality.  Under a high-emission pathway, the long-term risk is very high with little potential for adaptation.

Australasia
Increased frequency and intensity of flood damage to infrastructure and settlements in Australia and New Zealand.  The long-term risk is medium with potential for adaptation.

North America
Wildfire-induced loss of ecosystem integrity, property loss, human morbidity, and mortality as a result of increased drying trend and temperature trend. Under a high-emission pathway, the long-term risk is very high with not much potential for adaptation.

Central and South America
Spread of vector-borne diseases in altitude and latitude. In the medium-term this carries medium risk with potential for adaptation.  No long-term risk information.



Read more at Summary of Climate Change Impacts